"Shestov, good comrade Red Army man! Just hold your little gun until I get this wire spliced."
The man below became impatient. Dugan did not wish to have to go down and fight. It was much too much trouble. If he used the gun he would create a hullabaloo, which he had managed to avoid thus far in his visit to Atomsk; if he killed with his hands, it would use up too much of his strength, overcoming a man with a rifle. Anyhow, he did not want to kill the man: what did he have against that soldier? The fellow's voice sounded reasonable.
Dugan made little rustling sounds. He swept a branch back and forth on the ground.
The soldier was intelligent and skeptical. He called: "You Shestov or whatever you say you are, come right down here and show your identification papers." He added doubtfully, "Or I'll shoot."
"Wait a minute, comrade."
Dugan began creeping away, farther up the hill. The soldier called after him, "Stop creeping off. Come down here!"
"I'm following the wire, comrade, I have to follow the wire. Come along if you wish, but I can't let this wire go, now that I've found it."
The soldier did not seem to want to come. Dugan began to think that the hill must have something pretty interesting on top of it, inside of it, or on the other side, if a soldier sounded so nervous about climbing up the slope. Fishing for information, he called down to the soldier:
"Come on up here, Red Army man. You can lend me a hand."
Sure enough, the soldier refused. "I can't. I'm on duty. You come down here and show your pass. You've got to show your pass when challenged."